Con Passione
by FeelMyBones
Summary: Edward Masen is a bright, determined, music major with high aspirations, but he's missing one thing: passion. This is the story of a shy young musician in search of what inspires him. All Human, kind of OOC.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first attempt at writing fanfic in about two years. It's All Human, which puts it in an Alternate Universe from the books by default. It's also a bit OOC. Umm...I don't own Twilight or anything cool that like. I do own most of a music degree, which I guess qualifies me to write about such subject matter? Anyways, I hope you enjoy this first chapter of my little fic. Thanks a ton to my beta dancbabe89.

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

When I was a kid and someone asked me where my home was, my first thought was not the tiny, decrepit house where I slept and did my homework. To me, home was a piano bench. Home was reverently pressing my fingers into the delicate keys of a piano and drawing out the rich sounds until my mother forced me to come up for air and sustenance.

As I sat in my professor's office, moving my fingers over the keys and playing a Chopin Mazurka like I had hundreds of times, it didn't feel much like home anymore. In fact, it didn't feel much like anything other than pushing the right combination of keys to get the appropriate sounds.

I didn't get lost in the sweet melancholy of the music like I should have. I didn't feel particularly vulnerable as I played either. Vulnerability is necessary for musicians. If we really want to say something with our music, we have to open up our souls and let whoever is listening see inside. I'd never really been great at opening myself up like that, mostly because there wasn't much to show.

I loved playing the piano, I really did, but it just hadn't spoken to me lately, like it used to. I was stuck in some weird funk that just made everything about playing feel too familiar. It was like we were some boring couple, who really needed to get out there and see other people or something.

Every time I played, I went on autopilot and that freaked me the fuck out. What if I would never be able to stop?

Before I knew it, my fingers pressed down into the keys and the last chord hung in the air around me like a giant question mark. I briefly imagined that I was taking piano lessons in the Riddlers' lair, except everything was less green.

Before I started picturing Jim Carey jumping in and saying, "Riddle me this, Edward," I forced myself to look over at Esme. She was sitting across the room with her eyes closed, likely taking in the music. The last chord of the piece was still hanging in the air, though it was evaporating quickly.

Finally, Esme opened her eyes and looked at me with a weird expression on her face. I had no idea what she was thinking, not that I ever really did, but this particular look was making me almost squirm where I was sitting.

At a glance, Dr. Esme Cullen appeared to be the perfect, 1950's TV mom, but she was much more than that. She was a brilliant pianist, an exceptional teacher, and the main reason why I chose to go to school here at UW. That, and it was close to my mother, and I got some pretty awesome scholarships, but whatever. I wouldn't have come here if the piano teacher was shitty.

She stood up from her spot across the room and walked over to me. She was staring at me strangely and I wondered if I had some sort of debris on my face or something. I subtly ran my hand over my mouth area, just in case, and then ran that hand through my messy hair. The way that she was looking at me made me feel self-conscious as fuck.

"Edward." Her voice was calm and careful, and it only freaked me out more. "What do you feel when you play that Mazurka?"

I blinked at her, opening my mouth to say something. Nothing came out right away and I closed it again before swallowing hard. To say that her question had thrown me off was a fucking huge understatement, and I had no idea what to say.

What _did_ I feel when I played that Mazurka, or anything for that matter?

I furrowed my brows and looked into her brown eyes, hoping in vain that maybe I would find my answer there.

"Nothing." My brows knit together even further as the word left my mouth and I was sure that they'd be connected, if I kept it up. A weird unibrow was definitely not something that I needed.

Esme nodded and lowered herself to sit in a chair right next to the piano, folding her hands in her lap.

"Edward, it seems to me like you're having trouble being musical lately." Her voice was soft and smooth and her brown eyes were concerned.

I frowned at her words, wondering what in the hell they meant. Sensing my confusion, she continued.

"You're obviously very talented and you have no trouble with the technical aspects of playing." She said, almost dismissively. "But there's no passion behind it."

I turned my gaze downward, staring at the white keys in front of me. Being told that you're not musical, when music is what you want to do with your life, isn't exactly easy to digest.

"How do I fix that?" I asked, looking up at her desperately.

She smiled sadly and gave a light shrug. "I don't know, Edward. That's something that you have to find for yourself."

I started to panic then. Esme always knew the answers to all of my questions, and if she didn't, she knew where to find them. I had ran up to her office thousands of times, with silly questions about pieces that I was playing at the time or other piano related topics. She was my teacher and she was supposed to have all of the answers. Now that she didn't, I felt like screaming or hiding under my bed, or maybe screaming and then hiding under my bed.

Instead of acting like a scared child, I just nodded solemnly and ran a hand through my hair. I was sure that it was sticking up in every possible direction, but that didn't matter. It did that on its own, without being raped by my nervous fingers, anyways.

I glanced over at Esme, watching her lean forward, before placing a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"But if I were you, I would take a little break from piano to clear your head."

My head snapped up and I looked at her with wide eyes, like she'd just told me that she'd caught the theory professor and the orchestra conductor making out in the janitors' closet.

"Are you telling me not to practice?" My voice was slightly higher than usual, but damnit, I was fucking shocked. I never thought that I would hear my piano professor tell me not to practice. It was just wrong on so many levels.

"Yes, Edward." She chuckled, shaking her head. "You can go without practicing for one day, and I promise that the world won't end." She grinned and removed her hand from my shoulder. "And besides, you could use some sun. You're looking a little pasty."

I groaned softly to myself and just nodded. I knew that I was a pale motherfucker, but it's not like we lived in a state that got a lot of sun.

"Yeah, I'll do that." I nodded and started to pack up my sheet music.

Once all of my music was tucked securely into my messenger bag, I slung it over my shoulder and stood from the piano bench, running another hand through my hair. I walked to the door of Esme's office and turned, standing there a little awkwardly. Leaving a lesson was always the most awkward part and I had no idea why.

"So I guess I'll see you next week." I mumbled.

Esme offered me one of her kind smiles and nodded, taking a seat at her desk in the corner and opening up her laptop. She looked up at me as the screen loaded and her gaze softened a bit.

"Everything is going to be okay, Edward." She said encouragingly, which made me feel better about all of this. She was always very genuine and I believed her words.

With a small nod and a wave, I slipped out the door and closed it behind me. I walked down the long hallway, making my way to the staircase. Now that my schedule was suddenly wide open, I would have to find something to do with myself. Going back to my apartment and sitting around in my boxers, while watching crappy television was a ridiculously appealing idea, but I would feel guilty about being so unproductive.

I was so occupied by my thoughts, that I was a little shocked to find myself at the double doors that led to the outside world. Deciding not to freak out about that fact that I couldn't remember anything about the trip from Esme's office to the doors, I pushed one of them open and walked outside.

It was an unusually warm, spring day in Seattle and the sun warmed my skin as soon as I stepped outside. Maybe I would take Esme's advice and soak up some rays. I couldn't really remember the last time that I was just outside, for the sake of being outside. It wasn't unnatural for me to walk into the music building in the morning and not leave until later in the evening. It was always so weird to be locked up in that building all day and walk out, expecting to see the sun shining, and be met with total darkness.

I walked idly around the campus, not really paying attention to anything in particular. I knew that the campus was beautiful with all of the lush, green landscapes and gorgeous buildings, but none of that appealed to me. I didn't know when it had happened, but I realized then that my world had become black and white. Dull and boring. I furrowed my brows as this realization hit me in the face.

When had my world lost all of its beauty? Had it happened over night? Was it a gradual change that I hadn't noticed until now? All of these questions made my head hurt like hell.

I don't know how long I'd walked around campus wondering when my life had become less beautiful, but the sound of something hitting the ground in front of me, snapped me out of my thoughts. My gaze lifted slowly, landing first on the two boxes on the ground and up two, pale legs. The legs belonged to a girl who was trying to pick up the two boxes while balancing another one in her arms.

She was kind of short and had wild, brown hair that flew around her face as she tried to pick up the boxes. Her skin was almost as pale as mine and she was pretty small, which was probably why she couldn't handle all of her boxes by herself. She seemed to have the whole hipster look going on and it worked for her.

She was cute and frazzled and in desperate need of some assistance.

I cleared my throat softly and stepped forward. "Do you need some help?" My voice sounded more tentative, than I would have liked it to, but it wasn't like I had a lot of experience in talking to cute girls.

Her face snapped up and she looked at me with chocolate brown eyes that looked a little panicked.

"God, yes." She sighed, likely in relief. "I'm just carrying these to my dorm room over there." She nodded towards a building that wasn't too far way and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

I offered her a lopsided smile and bent down to pick up the two boxes. I was relieved to find that they weren't too heavy. I wasn't a body builder and didn't want to embarrass myself in front of this girl.

I waited for her to walk ahead of me so that I could follow her, peering around the boxes in my arms at her retreating form. We walked in silence until we reached the building, where I assumed her dorm room was. She pushed the door open with her hip and I stepped inside as she held it, thanking her.

I wanted to talk to her, but I had no idea what to say. I was horrible at interacting with people, especially attractive girls. I spent most of my time with a piano and textbooks and when I did have to interact with people, I either knew them because they were music majors or I worked with them.

"So what's your name?" The girl, who was walking ahead of me again, looked over her shoulder at me.

I shifted the boxes in my arms and peered at her from behind them.

"Edward. You?"

"I'm Bella." She smiled back at me before facing forward again.

I followed her through what appeared to be a small lounge with couches and a television. To the side were a couple of vending machines and some people were watching one of those stupid reality shows on the TV. We walked down a hallway and stopped at the bottom of a staircase. I prayed to the powers that be that I wouldn't fall down the stairs with these boxes. I wasn't clumsy, but I wasn't exactly grace personified either. With a deep breath, I followed Bella up the stairs, concentrating very hard on not falling over and making a total fool out myself.

When we reached the top of the stairs and I shifted the boxes in my arms again, growing curious about their contents. I could only hope that they weren't body parts or stolen car stereos.

"What's in these boxes anyways?" I asked curiously.

"Condoms." She shrugged and said it so nonchalantly, like it was the most normal thing in the world to be carrying boxes full of condoms.

I stumbled and almost dropped the boxes.

"Are they all yours?" Since my verbal filter was working so awesomely, the words came out of my mouth before I had the chance to think. "I mean….that's totally cool if they are." I think I probably started sweating.

It was silent for a very brief moment before Bella doubled over in laughter. I stood there and awkwardly shifted my weight between my feet, while she nearly rolled on the floor. I was tempted to just drop the boxes and run back to the safety of the music building. Thankfully, she stopped laughing and wiped at her eyes. Great. She was laughing so hard that she was crying. I was so cool.

"God, no. That's just…excessive!" She laughed again and shook her head, letting out a few more chuckles.

I blinked at her a few times, wanting to ask her what they were all for but not wanting to make an ass out of myself again. I'd reached my quota for the day.

She must have sensed that I wanted her to elaborate, because she did.

"I'm on the sexual health committee and since spring time usually means that people hump like rabbits, we're having a safe sex rally on Friday." She shifted the box in her arms and blew her bangs out of her face.

I nodded dumbly. That actually made a lot of sense.

We stopped in front of a plain, white door, and Bella looked between me and the door a few times before setting the box down next to it.

"I'd invite you in, but my room mate is probably naked." She shuddered. "You can just set those down there." She pointed to the floor and knelt down, opening up her box with a key.

As I stepped closer, my nose was bombarded by the scent of smoke and strawberries. While it doesn't sound like an appealing combination, it was actually rather pleasant, in a weird way. I caught myself sniffing in Bella's direction, like a crazy stalker as I set the boxes down. I was losing my mind.

When she had her boxes open, she looked up at me and smiled. I decided that her smile was really nice and flashed one back at her.

"You can take a few if you want, since you helped me and all."

I could have explained to her that I was very much a virgin and had given up on getting laid a long time ago, but that would just be embarrassing. If I took the condoms, she might think that I was a douche. If I didn't, she might think that I was rude. I chewed on my lip, like it was going out of style, and considered my option. Eventually, I decided that I did not want her to think I was rude.

Reaching down, I blindly took a couple of the foil packages out of the box and gave her an awkward smile. "Thanks."

Her gaze shifted to my hand and she raised one of her little eyebrows. I looked down to see what the big deal was and saw that I was holding two, Magnum XL condoms.

_Lord, kill me now._

My cheeks burst into flames and the fire spread down my neck. I prayed for a lightning bolt from the heavens to strike me dead. She probably thought that I was a total douche bag or that I had some kind of anaconda living in my pants. I mean, I wasn't small, but I didn't know if I was quite XL material.

I cleared my throat and said another prayer for that lightning bolt, as I pocketed the foil wrappers.

To my dismay, no lightning ever came.

"Thanks a lot for helping me, Edward. I probably would have dropped these boxes at least 10 more times, if you hadn't come to my rescue." She smiled at me and I think my liver turned to goo. Maybe even my pancreas.

"It was my pleasure, Bella." I smiled back at her and was glad that she seemed to forget about the embarrassing condom incident. I hadn't, but I could wallow in my embarrassment later.

I looked around and ran a hand through my hair, pulling it to stand up between my fingers. I noticed that the paint on her doorframe was chipped in a few places and a light bulb down the hallway had burnt out. Then I decided that I should retreat before shit got even more awkward.

"Well it was nice to meet you, Bella." I looked down at her and dropped my hand from my hair.

"You too Edward. You should stop by the rally on Friday. I'll be there most of the day." Her voice sounded kind of hopeful but I had no idea why it would, so I decided that it was my imagination.

"Yeah, maybe I will." I nodded and turned to leave. "See you later." I gave her a small wave and made my way down the stairs.

I knew that I probably wouldn't go to the safe sex rally on Friday, but it was nice that she invited me, right? Maybe it meant that she enjoyed having me around.

I shook my head, mentally berating myself. She probably invited everyone that she came across to that rally.

I certainly wasn't anything special.

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><p>Well, there you have it. Reviews make me want to continue writing. I'd love to know what you think.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, and added this to their favorites and alerts. **

**This chapter isn't beta'd (dun dun duuun), so you'll have to forgive me if I've put a comma in the wrong place or something.**

**I still don't own Twilight or anything else that's cool.**

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><p>"You're an idiot."<p>

I sighed and looked up from where I was elbow deep in a rusty old filing cabinet. Alice was perched on the edge of the table across the room, looking at me with a smug little grin that I didn't even want to try to decipher.

"Thanks, Alice. That's exactly what I want to hear right now." I grumbled and stood up straight, wincing as my back stretched painfully. I don't know how long I'd been hunched over the filing cabinet, but it had definitely been too long.

"Well, it's the truth." She raised one of her perfectly trimmed eyebrows at me and leaned back, resting against the heels of her hands.

I just shook my head and walked over to the table to grab the stack of music that still needed to be filed, not in the mood for her vague girl bullshit. Why couldn't she just give me a list of reasons to support whatever claim she was making? That would have made my life so much easier.

"And why am I an idiot today?" I turned my back on her and rolled my eyes as I walked back to the filing cabinet.

Working as the music-filing bitch was not exactly a glamorous job, but it was convenient. I literally got to work whenever I wanted and all I had to do was organize the sheet music that the bands and orchestras used. Sometimes I would have to suffer the wrath of the angry band director who most wind players affectionately referred to as 'Dr. McDouche.' The man buttoned his polo shirts all the way up and wore a fanny pack, but he could probably Hulk out if the situation called for it. I hadn't witnessed one of his legendary rage fests, but I had heard terrible things. I just made sure not to misplace any of the music that he wanted his ensembles to play and he was perfectly cordial towards me. The prick of a graduate assistant for the orchestra was a different story, however, and I spent much of my filing time trying to come up with ways to stab him in the eye with one of his batons.

I started to organize the music again while I waited for Alice's explanation as to why I was an idiot today. It changed from day to day, but I was used to it. Besides, she was one of my two close friends, so I kind of had to put up with her shit.

"Bella clearly wants you to go see her at the rally today, and you're too much of an idiot boy to recognize that." She smiled at me sweetly, tapping her little toes in midair to some beat that only she could hear.

I sighed heavily and ran a hand through my hair. It was my own fault that Alice even knew about Bella and the rally. In a moment of lovesick stupidity, I gushed to Alice about how I had met Bella, and for some reason, I told her everything. Now, I had to suffer while Alice told me exactly what every word meant in girl speak, and it was giving me a fucking headache.

"Even if she did want me to go, which she clearly did not." I turned my head and looked at her. "What the fuck would I say to her?"

It was no secret that I wasn't exactly some suave, ladies man. Sure, I had been on dates and had a couple of girlfriends, but none of them lasted for more than a few weeks. I had yet to meet someone who I could tolerate for more than a little while, someone who really understood who I was and what I was trying to do with my life.

I made it a rule not to date other music majors, which limited my dating pool. It was just too complicated to date other musicians, and could get ridiculously messy after it was all said and done. See, music isn't like other majors where you do your own thing and never really have to interact with other people of the same major. In the music department, you know everyone and you see them on a regular basis. I've seen countless relationships begin and end, and I've witnessed the awkwardness that ensued when the people still had to go to rehearsal together every day.

Like I said, not dating other musicians put severe limitations on who I could date, especially since I hardly ever left the music department. I usually met girls in my few core classes, which wasn't exactly ideal, but it was really all I had going.

_I would just like to point out right now that dating a girl who you share a class with is almost as bad as dating another music major. When you break up, you still have to see each other in class and it is awkward as fuck. Thankfully, it only lasts for a semester._

Another downside to dating non-music majors is that most of them don't exactly get the whole music thing. They don't understand why you can't spend every waking moment with them because you're locked up in a practice room. See, what mot people don't get is that being a music major is just plain hard. We have to take all of the same core classes and classes in our major, plus we have to find several hours in our day to spend practicing. And some of us have jobs on top of all of that. You can see where this would get complicated.

Anyways, dating music majors is bad and dating non-music majors is also bad.

In general, dating is just bad, especially when you're Edward Masen.

I felt something sharp and pointy hit the back of my head and immediately brought my hand up to check for blood. Thankfully, there was none.

"Ow! Alice, what the fuck?" My eyes snapped to her and then down at the floor to her weapon of choice. It was a shoe. A pointy, high-heeled shoe.

"You were off in Edward land, so I took it upon myself to bring you back to reality." She shrugged her dainty little shoulders. "And you were _rudely_ ignoring me while I was trying to help you with your girl problems." She added with more than a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"I don't have fucking girl problems." I grumbled, leaning down to pick up her damn shoe. I examined the thing briefly before tossing it in her direction. I don't know how girls wear those things. They're torture devices for you feet.

_I only know what wearing high heels feels like because I was forced into dressing up as a girl for Halloween last year. Let the record show that it was Alice's idea and that I really had no choice in the matter. Also, finding a pair of size 14 high heels is really fucking difficult._

"Oh, Eddie." Alice sighed and hopped onto her feet, putting her shoe back on. She thought that I was hopeless, and that was fine. Maybe I was.

The door to the small office opened and Jasper poked his head in, his eyes focusing on Alice. Matching smiles spread across both of their faces as he stepped inside and enveloped her in a hug.

I had to look away, because honestly, it kind of fucking sucked to see my friends so happy and in love when I just…wasn't.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not the kind of guy who has to have a girlfriend, nor am I the type of guy who goes out looking for someone to be with. I don't need a girl to complete me. It would just be nice to have that companionship.

"Hey Edward. How are you, man?" I looked up and saw Jasper standing with his arm wrapped around Alice's tiny waist, giving me a friendly smile.

"He's stupid, that's what he is." Alice grinned at me devilishly and I sighed. I thought she was done.

Jasper looked between the two of us, his right eyebrow quirked in curiosity. I just shook my head and waved a dismissive hand at him. Alice would fill him in, and I really didn't want to hear about it again. I was trying to forget about Bella and how fucking badly I wanted to see her again. It was pathetic.

Thankfully, Alice didn't say another word about it, and for that, I wanted to hug the stupid pixie.

"So you're coming out tonight for drinks, yeah?" Jasper changed the subject, and I also wanted to hug him.

"Yeah, sure." I shrugged and kicked at something invisible on the floor with the toe of my shoe.

Honestly, I always felt a bit weird going out with Alice and Jasper, like I was some obnoxiously pathetic third wheel. It was bound to happen, since they were really my only close friends, but it never stopped feeling weird. I loved them both to death, though, and had learned long ago not to turn down an invitation to hang out with them.

_Alice may or may not have threatened to flush all of my sheet music down the toilet if I refused to go out with them. I may or may not have dramatically thrown myself over the stack of my beloved music in an effort to save it. Needless to say, I never refused them when they invited me to go out with them unless I had a really fucking good reason and evidence to back up said reason in case Alice got any ideas._

The three of us made plans to meet at our favorite bar later that night and said our goodbyes for the afternoon. I tried not to think about how they were probably on their way to a dark practice room to do things that would make my mother (and me) blush. I tried to convince myself that they were both lacking certain parts of their anatomy needed for copulating. I decided that I should probably just go back to filing and pretending that I wasn't thinking about Bella.

_Bella._

I met the girl once for like five minutes, and I couldn't get her out of my head. It was absolutely disgusting and I wanted to shove a spoon in my ear hole and scoop bits of my brain out until the stupid was gone.

She could have been a totally horrible person for all I knew, and I still couldn't stop thinking about her. I blamed Alice for putting the idea in my head that she actually wanted me to go to that rally thing and see her.

I suddenly wanted to flush her flute down the toilet.

_Note to self: find out how to flush a flute down the toilet._

I didn't really think much about what I was doing as I worked, and before I knew it, the stack of music to be filed was gone and it was time for me to head over to the bar. I only hoped that during my Bella induced black out that I had managed to properly file the music. I did not need a visit from an angry Dr. McDouche.

_Note to self: find out what his real name is._

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><p>The bar was noisy and crowded and I wanted to go home as soon as I stepped inside. It was only 7o'clock and some drunken guy was stumbling around with his fist in the air, yelling for some imaginary band to play Freebird. Classy.<p>

I looked around the bar, trying to find where Alice and Jasper where, if they were even there yet. Lord knows that they were probably locked up in the sketchy bathroom doing unspeakable things to each other. I cringed at the thought and continued to look for my friends.

If Alice and Jasper were there, I didn't know it. My search stopped short when my eyes landed on a familiar face sitting at the bar.

Bella.

She sat alone at the bar with nothing but a glass of water in front of her, which puzzled me. Why would she come to a bar to drink a glass of water? My thoughts did not linger on that for long as I took her in. She was scribbling away in a journal, her tongue poking adorably out of her mouth as she concentrated on whatever it was that she was writing. I wanted to kiss the corners of her lips.

I wanted to punch myself in the face.

I didn't even know this girl, but I really fucking wanted to. I knew that it was stupid and would probably end badly, but that didn't seem to matter. I knew that I was likely to embarrass myself in front of her like I had the first time that we met, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

Before I could really even register what I was doing, I was walking over to where she sat alone at the bar. A voice in the back of my mind screamed for me to stop, but I pushed it away.

God, I really had no sense of self-preservation.

It wasn't until I was standing next to her and she was looking at me that I realized what was going on. I wanted to run home and hide under my bed. I wanted to talk to her and find out more about her.

I didn't really know what I wanted.

She arched one of her eyebrows at me and I realized that I'd just been standing there, staring at her like some kind of creep. Awesome.

_I am such a winner._

I cleared my throat and ran a nervous hand through my hair, trying to find the moxie to say something to her. Luckily, I didn't have to.

"Edward, right?"

She remembered my name.

I loved that she remembered my name.

I had the sudden urge to buy a round of drinks for the entire bar.

Instead, I smiled timidly and gave her a confirming nod.

"Hello, Bella." I tried to sound smooth and probably failed miserably.

"You didn't come to the rally today." It wasn't a question, and I was left a little bit stunned and a whole lot of speechless.

Maybe Alice was right. Maybe she _did_ want me to be there.

"I had to work?" I hadn't meant for it to sound like a question, nor had I meant for my voice to come out as a pre-pubescent squeak. Such is my life.

While I didn't technically lie to her, she didn't look convinced. She totally knew that I was full of shit. Great.

"It's fine. A lot of people are uncomfortable with that kind of stuff." She shrugged and turned her attention back to her journal. It was one of those Molskine things that I always admired in the store but could never bring myself to buy. Why a little journal should be so expensive, I didn't know.

Silence stretched between us for what felt like hours, and I was reminded of my horrible inadequacies when it came to social interaction. I wanted to beat my head against the bar. I wanted to ask her out on a date.

"Can I buy you a drink?" The words came out of my mouth so quickly that I wasn't sure if she could even understand them.

I wanted to be able to think before I spoke.

She looked up from whatever she was writing and gave me a sad sort of smile. Some emotion that I couldn't quite decipher swam in the depths of her brown eyes, and I felt a strange tightening in my chest.

"I don't drink." She shifted on her bar stool and looked down at the page in her journal again. I wanted to reach over and rip it out for taking her attention away from me.

I was jealous of a piece of paper. Awesome.

"Then why you are at a bar?" I blurted out my question before thinking. I was finding that thinking before speaking was just not happening for me when I was around Bella.

She let out a soft laugh that eased the tightness in my chest, and she looked up at me again.

"My cousin's the bartender." She gestured to the large man behind the bar who was chatting up some of his female customers as he mixed their drinks. He looked like he could crush me with nothing more than a flick of his wrist.

I looked at Bella again and shifted my weight between my feet, trying to come up with something clever and cool to say. When I couldn't think of anything, I looked around for Alice and Jasper. I was clearly getting nowhere with this girl and had decided to leave before it got too awkward.

Alice and Jasper had just walked in and were making their way to our usual table. I was about to say goodbye to Bella so that I could join them and wallow in my failure before she spoke.

"Edward?"

I turned my gaze back to her, giving her a small smile. "Yes?"

"I'll let you buy me a coffee if you promise to walk me home afterwards."

Stunned couldn't even begin to describe how I felt.

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><p><strong>There it is. Reviews make me happy, so leave them, yeah?<strong>


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